Sept. 18, 2001 

Judge approves order for operators of gas tanks at Cape service station to pay penalty, clean up site of 1998 spills

Jefferson City, Mo. — Attorney General Jay Nixon has obtained judicial approval of an order(-152K) against the operators of gasoline storage tanks at a Cape Girardeau service station because of environmental violations caused by a spill of approximately 3,000 gallons of gasoline from those  underground storage tanks in December 1998.

The order signed by Judge Carl Gum Jr. on Friday (Sept. 14) requires David Barklage and his business, Target Media Consultants Inc., to pay a $37,000 civil penalty and conduct a thorough assessment and cleanup of any remaining groundwater or soil contamination caused by the spill. The order resolves a  lawsuit filed by Nixon against Barklage and Target Media Consultants last year.

Barklage and his business admitted in the consent judgment to the environmental violations at the site at 2201 Broadway — operated as Spanky’s Texaco at the time of the spill and now operated as Value Gas — and took responsibility for failing to comply with the law.

The release of gasoline from Spanky’s was discovered by the Cape Girardeau Fire Department on Dec. 16, 1998, when they responded to complaints of a strong petroleum odor coming from a sewer next to the station. Firefighters on the scene determined that petroleum vapors had reached 100 percent of the lower explosive limit standard. 

Five months prior to the spill, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources had cited the station owners for numerous environmental violations concerning the storage tanks and their lack of a leak detection system. A DNR inspection after spill found that those problems had not been corrected. The DNR also determined that cleanup attempts by Barklage after the 1998 spill were inadequate.

The consent judgment signed by Judge Gum and filed by the Attorney General’s Office with the Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court requires Barklage and Target Media Consultants to fully assess and characterize the site’s contamination and submit a report and work plan to the DNR for that agency’s approval. Once approved, the defendants will commence with the cleanup plan. 

If the defendants comply with the other terms of the order and Missouri environmental laws, $17,000 of the $37,000 penalty will be suspended. The other $20,000 — plus interest — will be paid in installments over the next 18 months. The defendants also will pay $1,727 to reimburse the DNR for its emergency response costs related to the spill. 

In addition, the order permanently bars Barklage and Target Media Consultants from having any financial interest or operating control in underground storage tanks or in any business engaged in petroleum marketing or production in Missouri.